Cougars!

I'm back in Charleston after a lovely, but very busy, christmas holiday back in snowy old Leeds. Since i last blogged i managed to go back to New York to stay with family friends for thanksgiving and my 21st birthday (see pic above of the amazing ice rink in Central Park). It was amazing, mainly because i got to have an epic meal with a house full of Italian Americans, and because my family suprised me with a secret visit.
Anyhoo, this semester i have lots of fun trips planned. I'm going to DC next month with a friend from home who is studying at Wisconsin uni, and me and some friends from Nottingham are going to New Orleans for Mardi gras as it conveniently falls during spring break. I may also be going to south by south west festival in Texas to see my friends band, so lots is going on!
I really like my classes this semester. I'm doing a independent research study in preperation for my impending dissertation (joy), but i'm being supervised by a lady who works for the CIA which is pretty cool. I went out for dinner with a professor the other night to discuss this, and he indulged me and Matt with lots of red wine and told us tales of his travels which was enlightening to say the least.
Despite the work load, and there is a lot of it, there is plenty of time to have fun. I went out last night with a group of friends to a kareoke bar, and tomorrow night we are 'tailgating' the basketball game. Still loving Charleston, i think i might stay forever.

Despite it being November, at UF it still feels like summer with temperatures in the twenties! This is one advantage for being in Florida and another reason is that you only have to pack light clothes! I think it is going to be quite a shock to return to England at Christmas to face temperatures below zero.As the term is coming to a close, it means the work load has unfortunately picked up with the looming presence of finals. Although one good thing about finals happening in a few weeks is that it means that I can have a stress free Christmas (which is rather nice compared to my last two Christmas holidays at Nottingham).Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday to partake in. I was lucky enough to go and enjoy Thanksgiving with an American friend and her friends and family. The food was wonderful ranging from sweet potatoes covered in peacans, brown sugar and marshmellows to pumpkin pie! Also, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to embrace Thanksgiving wholeheartedly where we witnessed some spectacular miming from Kanye West and Jessica Simpson. Nothing beats America on cheese factor!
Travelling has been one of my quests this semester to try and start exploring this vast country. Being only here a year I want to take full advantage of being here and see other states and be able to experience different cultures to that of Florida. I have ventured to DC, Boston, Miami, Atlanta and the Bahamas so far and have a long list ready for next semester! Travelling now is a lot cheaper than travelling from England every time. Hostels become your new best friend whilst out here!

Update from McGill

Sorry, I appreciarte this update is late, but the lure of midterms, meant that I kept on putting it off. Looking through some of the previous updates, people tend to talk about their life in the country and them furnish this with personal anecdotes, so I'll try and do the same.


I'll start with class. McGill lecturers are fantastic for the most part, and I have to say that I much prefer the class interaction here to Notts. However, I am also being told, that I dress too casually for class. A few times I have come to class in trackies, but this is too casually. These guys haven’t had school uniform for 14 years of their life, I feel this gives me a right to wear what the hell I want.Lecturers here mention Britain a lot, which I really do enjoy. However, they tend to make wild claims about home, which are not so true. This one was less forgiveable. Mostly because the lecturer is from Manchester. His claim that the Bank of Scotland is one of the biggest banks in England, was laughable. I will feel I have made a difference in Canada, if I can clear up this surprisingly common misconception that England and Britain are interchangeable terms.

Obviously, last weekend was remembrance Sunday. Canadians are fairly big on this. The Quebecois are less keen. Interestingly, the Anglophone (English speaking) schools take the day off from conventional classes, and spend the whole day teaching about the horrors of WW1 and WW2. The Francophone (French speaking) sometimes don’t even have a minutes silence. Probably one of the most interesting things that I have learnt about Canadian society. We are missing out in England though. Canadian poppies are off such a superior quality. None of this paper crap, they are made out of felt. These things could last me for years. Perhaps I am missing the point by saving a poppy from last year, to wear the next year, but I have to tell you these things are fantastic. Sturdy and with a fantastic clip mechanism.


If you ever go to Canada, get yourself to Tim Hortons. Its like McDonalds but for coffee, bagels and pastries. Probably the best thing about Canada actually.

Well, that's all from me

Hope everyone is keeping well,

Alastair

Dads Weekend

Once a year American Universities have a weekend dedicated to Dads. It is quite a nice idea but its slightly strange walking round campus seeing every student with their Dad in toe, some of the Dads even stay in the dorms. Of course I didn't have my Dad over for the weekend so I therefore continued to partake in the usual weekend activities at an American College, 'Football' games and house parties.

This weekend was the second time I've seen the 'beavers' play 'football' however this time we didn't turned up and therefore deservedly had our pants pull down by the Washington State Cougars. Game day at OSU is a big affair and many ex-students and in this case loads of dads usually stay in town for the evening and hit up the parties, bars and the only club in town. I have to say it was a new experience to dance with a girl in a club only to find out that next to her, her grey headed slightly over weight dad was dancing next to me with another girl well under half his age, americans really do like the whole happy families thing.

College of Charleston

Hello! I probably should have blogged before now, but better late than never i suppose! My name is Nikki Barr and i am currently studying at the College of Charleston in South Carolina (go Cougars!). I'm not really sure where to begin in describing Charleston. For me, the biggest attraction are the beaches, each of which are just a twenty minute drive away, and since a few of my American friends have cars, this means i've spent plenty of weekends attempting to surf and building sand castles (because you are never too old to build a sand castle!.

'Downtown' Charleston is full of beautiful buildings, however you don't see any skyscrapers here on account of the architectural board which ensures that any new buildings adhere to charm of the old town. King Street, the high street if you like, boasts plenty of upmarket shops, such as channel, reflecting the fact that Charleston still remains very wealthy post civil war.

The college itself is pretty amazing. The fraternity and sorority scene doesn't impact the student body here all too greatly, which is great because in many ways i find the concept ridiculous. There are however, plenty of societies to become involved with including student radio, the watersports club and all of the other obvious sports teams. One thing that i would say is that classes are very different to lectures or seminars. The classes resemble school lessons much more closely, and people are very keen to express their opinions which makes a change from awkward silences in many of the seminars i've had back home. The work load is definitely more demanding though; whilst it is easier work, you have a lot more of it!

I've managed to travel quite a bit whilst i've been here. Before i arrived in Charleston, i went to New York for five days which was very intense. I'm also planning to return there for thanksgiving and my birthday as i'm lucky enough to have family living in Queens. I've also been to Birmingham, Alabama with another student from Nottingham. We went to the civil rights institute which was definitely a worth while experience. We also went to another area in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach, to meet one of my friends at East Carolina University who had rented a beach house for the weekend. So despite trying to settle in to a new place, meet new people and study, there is definitely room for travel.

This weekend is halloween and it is a very big deal in America. Plenty of my friends are going all out on their costumes; it doesn't necessarily have to be scary. We are going to a rave on friday night and to a concert on saturday with parties inbetween. Celebrations start wednesday night and go on until sunday so i've been warned to get all of my work out of the way to fully take advantage. Needless to say we are all very excited.

All in all, i've been here about two months now and so far i can honestly say that coming to the states was the best decision i ever made. I'm absolutely loving it!

Life as a Gator

Hello!

My name is Hania Piotrowska and I am currently studying at the University of Florida. I have been here 9 weeks which is crazy when you think about it as it doesn't feel that long. Campus is a lot larger than Nottingham, we have a football stadium which seats over 90,000 people, a basketball/volleyball court, numerous pools and gyms, a golf course and actual alligators! I thought this was just a myth that alligators would be on campus but you can easily stand about 10 metres away from a gator in a pond on campus - surreal moment!

International students have the option to stay in an international hall (Weaver Hall) where you usually share a room with an American (or if you are lucky, a single room). This is a great way to immerse yourself with other international students ranging from Vietnamese to Polish to Brazilian. Also another advantage is that Weaver is on campus so you are in walking distance of most things.

UF also has a group called Navigators. This is a group designed for international students where you get paired up with an American in a buddy system. They put on trips and so far I have been to Universal Studios with them, tubing at Ginnie Springs, Lake Wauburg and I will be going paintballing with them this Sunday. This is another fantastic way to meet more people.

Apart from all this fun I seem to be having, I have also had to knuckle down and study. The system is very different from Nottingham. Here you have monthly assessments/exams unlike Nottingham where you have all the work at the end of the term. Depending on what modules you pick it can be a lot of work and at first it seemed very overwhelming but as long as I stay on top of it all then it is fine. Plus, I have still found time to enjoy Gainesville's nightlife and travel at weekends which has already provided lots of fun moments and I am sure will provide many more!

Go Gators!

Everything is Still Bigger in Texas

It is just about been a month since the Nottingham Law group arrived in Austin, and time has just flown past! We had about a week to settle ourselves into our apartment and Texas life in general before classes started, and are now pretty much into the swing of things.

Classes here are slightly different to what we had back in Nottingham, the most obvious difference that can be seen on entry into a classroom is that everyone is much older than you! Law is a graduate degree here, so the majority of people are over 25, in some cases are married with kids, and you definitely feel like the small fish in the pond! Having said that though there are numerous advantages to it all, for a start the facilities and resources are fantastic in the Law School - the Law Library alone is larger than Hallward back in Nottingham, the discussion in class is of a very high standard, and of course there is a massive variety when it comes to choosing classes. In class, no longer can you get away with not saying anything, the professor will pick you out and grill you on the spot, and bad answers can reflect negatively on your grades, so you better come prepared! The professors themselves are mostly well renowned and have written a few/many books on various topics, in fact we had a week off one class last week because the professor was part of a death row inmate's defence and the case was before the Supreme Court!

Atmosphere on and around campus is pretty amazing, 60 000 students is double what we have back home, and when the Uni American Football team is due to play, the Uni colour (which happens to be burnt orange) is everywhere. The campus is dominated by a 100 000 seater stadium that is sold out every game the Uni team plays (wikipedia the 'Longhorns' for some info!), and this past week we were lucky enough to get tickets so see them play! We lost the game pretty badly, resulting in most people on campus being depressed for the rest of the day, but the UCLA fans who had travelled all the way from California seemed to be pretty pleased about the result!

The food continues to amaze me, we have had a few Tex-Mex meals that involve more cheese than most dairy farms produce in a day (seriously, the cheese to all other food ratio on your dish is about 50:1) but the novelty of free unlimited refills still hasn't worn off, and neither has the all-you-can-eat ribs for $10. Most supermarkets being open 24/7 is just another example of the conveniences people here experience without even thinking about it, but it is certainly causing us Brits to pile on the pounds! It's a good thing the Uni has a state of the art gym that is about 10 times bigger than the Nottingham one and is free to use, or we might not fit on the plane on the way back!

Next week we are off the State fair in Dallas, where literally anything can be deep fried (steaks, oreos, ice cream, beer, you name it!) and hopefully see our newly beloved Longhorns overcome their fierce rivals OU in the Red River Rivalry game, which can never be played on either team's home soil as the rivalry is just too intense!